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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28039899">falling into place like dominoes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghosthunter/pseuds/ghosthunter'>ghosthunter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Stray Kids (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, I don't know what's wrong with me, Knotting, Knotting Dildos, M/M, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Scenting, a truly unbearable amount of talking about scent, seungmin and minho SUFFERING, stupid baby alpha posturing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:27:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,299</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28039899</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghosthunter/pseuds/ghosthunter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>They knew it could potentially be a problem. Any group that they put four people of the same age in was going to potentially have an issue where everyone presented all at once. And it was fine, because at least two of them had all of the markers of being Betas. So only two of them would really have problems when presenting.</p><p>Things never quite go as expected when it comes to presentation.</p><p>The problem comes down to Felix. Or does it come down to Hyunjin?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bang Chan/Lee Felix, Han Jisung | Han/Hwang Hyunjin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>545</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>falling into place like dominoes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/llwyncelyn/gifts">llwyncelyn</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>per <a href="https://twitter.com/notedgoon/status/1336706749726920704">this tweet</a>, here is the scenario llwyncelyn requested i write first. yes i plan to write at least one of the other scenarios. i am sorry. and yet at the same time, not sorry.</p><p>beta by spitthedark, who had to read it twice because i told her there was no way there wasn't something wrong with nearly 9000 words. other than me totally embarrassing myself.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They knew it could potentially be a problem. Any group that they put four people of the same age in was going to potentially have an issue where everyone presented all at once. And it was fine, because at least two of them had all of the markers of being Betas. So only two of them would really have problems when presenting.</p><p>Things never quite go as expected when it comes to presentation.</p><p>Sure, two of the ‘00 line are Betas. Both Seungmin and Jisung have a perfectly clean, neutral Beta scent, no presentation for the other six of them to suffer through. It’s good for Jisung to be a Beta, to be a level presence where Changbin and Chan are both Alphas. Minho is a Beta as well, so it’s not strange to have more around. Jeongin is still unpresented, too young to be quite ready.</p><p>The problem comes down to Felix. Or does it come down to Hyunjin? Or does it come down to the crush Chan has had on Felix for ages that he’s done nothing about because Felix has been unpresented? Nevermind that they were pretty sure Felix was going to be an Omega, which was perfect for Chan?</p><p>No, the problem definitely comes down to Hyunjin. They knew Felix would probably be an Omega. With some people, it’s easy to tell. So when Felix starts getting dizzy and cranky, flashing hot, and having cramps, none of them are surprised.</p><p>They’re waiting for the same thing to start happening to Hyunjin. Hyunjin has plenty of traits that mark him as a potential Omega.</p><p>Hyunjin, it turns out, is not an Omega.</p><p>Felix is a needy Omega. He wants attention, wants to curl up against someone and have his back rubbed or his hair petted, and he’s barrelling toward his first heat. Some of them (read: Changbin and Jisung) know that Chan has had a crush on Felix for ages. But Chan wants more than just to guide Felix through his first heat as a new Omega. He wants courting, he wants Felix to be his.</p><p>He doesn’t get the chance to start courting.</p><p>It happens like this:</p><p>They have an hour before they have to be at their rehearsal space, and Felix is about two days out from his actual heat hitting. Chan has to pull the trigger, but he has to find Felix first. Their dorm isn’t that big, so there’s not that many places he can be.</p><p>Felix is actually in the kitchen, boxed in against the wall by Hyunjin’s forearms. Chan feels like he’s never been so aware of how tall Hyunjin is until right that moment, how much bigger he seems than Felix.</p><p>He freezes, taking in what he’s actually seeing. Felix, slumped against the wall. Hyunjin, pinning him against it, his face dipped down to Felix’s neck, like he’s kissing. But Chan knows that Hyunjin’s not kissing him. Felix’s head is tipped back, his eyes closed, his lower body arched toward Hyunjin.</p><p>Hyunjin is scenting him.</p><p>“Oh shit,” Chan says.</p><p>They’ve made a grave miscalculation. All of them were banking on Hyunjin also being an Omega, none of them considered what would happen if Hyunjin were an Alpha and presented at the same time as Felix. And now they’re faced with that reality, right in the middle of their kitchen.</p><p>“Okay, we can’t - you can’t do this - “ Chan starts, and moves toward them. He doesn’t know what he expected, but it certainly wasn’t for Hyunjin to growl at him.</p><p>He doesn’t think another Alpha has ever growled at him before. But Hyunjin does, before burying his face back against Felix’s skin. Felix looks at Chan, nearly limp in Hyunjin’s grasp, his eyes big and dark, his scent so thick that Chan can smell it, heavy with desire.</p><p>Chan needs reinforcements.</p><p>He’s not going to fight with Hyunjin, and he suspects that’s what would end up happening if he tried to get Felix away from him right now. He doesn’t remember having ever fought with Changbin, or even felt the urge to get territorial with Changbin the way Hyunjin is acting now. Of course, there’s never been a freshly presented Omega in the house, either. Minho’s the only other one of them old enough to have presented, and he’s a Beta.</p><p>Chan bursts into the bedroom, where Changbin is sitting with his laptop. He’s got earbuds in and doesn’t even look up. Chan has to physically snatch one of them out of his ear.</p><p>“Hyunjin’s an Alpha,” he says to Changbin. Changbin looks at Chan for a moment, blinking like he doesn’t understand what Chan has just said to him.</p><p>“What?” Changbin says.</p><p>“Hyunjin’s an Alpha, Felix is in pre-heat, and they might be about to fuck in the kitchen,” Chan says, because that seems to cover about everything that’s going down. Except for one tiny detail. “Also I need help because Hyunjin straight up growled at me.”</p><p>“He growled at you?” Changbin flips his laptop shut and pushes himself to his feet.</p><p>“You never growled at me,” Chan says, because he’s still stuck on that.</p><p>“We never had an Omega in the house to fight over.” Chan has to admit, Changbin has a point.</p><p>Chan takes a deep breath. “I’m getting Minho. See if he has a different reaction to you trying to break them up.”</p><p>It turns out, Chan is not special. Hyunjin also growls at Changbin when he gets close to where they’re still pressed against one wall of the kitchen, Felix’s leg hooked up around Hyunjin’s waist as he tries to push closer. Changbin pulls his t-shirt up over his nose to muffle the scent of Felix’s need, the underlying scent of slick.</p><p>Minho is the one who finally manages to get between them. Hyunjin doesn’t feel threatened by a Beta, and Minho is able to gently push Felix’s ankle down, to untangle their arms from each other. To lead Hyunjin away from Felix.</p><p>“Please go and get someone else - “ Minho says, when Chan starts to take a step toward Felix and Hyunjin starts to push past Minho to get back to Felix, a growl in his throat. “Get Seungmin and Jisung. Please. And stay out of here.”</p><p>So it’s a problem. Hyunjin can be around Chan and Changbin, but only if Felix isn’t in the room. One of the Betas has to stay with Felix and Hyunjin at all times. That would be fine, except Felix shares a room with Changbin and Chan, which Hyunjin refuses to accept.</p><p>Felix has been sleeping in that room for days, even though he’s started presenting, even though they’ve known that he’s headed toward his first heat. It hasn’t been a problem. Hyunjin being an Alpha, and a possessive one at that, has made it a problem. At least it’s an easy fix: Jeongin and Felix can just swap rooms until this all blows over, because there’s no way in hell they’re letting Felix and Hyunjin sleep in the same room.</p><p>No one is really that surprised that Hyunjin’s presentation sends him spinning out of control. They just expected him to be a needy Omega, crawling all over the Alphas and begging them to put him out of his misery. They didn’t expect him to be an Alpha at all, deciding that Felix is his, scenting him and protecting him, warning the other Alphas away from him.</p><p>It’s for the best that they take Felix somewhere else to ride out his heat. There’s no way something bad wouldn’t happen if they tried to let Felix and Hyunjin do it together, with it being both of their first times. No one trusts either of them to be able to keep it together to keep it protected. It would be a disaster if Felix ended up bred.</p><p>Once Felix is out of the house, Hyunjin starts to calm down. Felix comes back three days later, tired and drawn and Hyunjin is on him instantly, rubbing against him like a cat, replacing the over-scrubbed, soapy scent that clings to Felix with his own. </p><p>They get on like this, once Felix’s first heat is over and Hyunjin isn’t wound up by it. There’s still a lot of Alpha posturing - he’s always been kind of a brat, but now he’s pushing his limits with Chan and Changbin, seeing how far the other Alphas will let him get before putting him in his place. He’s still overprotective of Felix, and it’s still driving Chan crazy, Chan who is stupid in love with Felix and has been for ages now. </p><p>It’s just constant. One of them is always scenting the other, so that it’s hard to tell where one’s scent ends and the other begins. They start to think of Felix’s sweet Omega scent blending with the heavier, bitter Alpha scent that clings to Hyunjin as just belonging to both of them, normal.</p><p>Chan’s just grateful they don’t seem interested in actually mating or, god forbid, bonding. They just keep snuggling up and rubbing all over each other, and Hyunjin gets jealous whenever someone else is taking up Felix’s time.</p><p>They survive Felix’s second heat, too, and Hyunjin getting just as possessive as during the first, going back to snarling at Chan or Changbin when they get too close to Felix.</p><p>(“It’s like, a thing,” Minho tells them, having been the only one to try and Google whatever disaster is happening. “When Alphas and Omegas present at the same time. They’re like. I don’t know. Pack. Family. So Hyunjin’s protecting him.”</p><p>“This is stupid,” Chan tells him, irritated. Minho just stares at him, because Chan’s the one who’s going to have to make a move if he actually wants to court Felix.)</p><p>Then everything turns upside down.</p><p>Half of them have been at the practice space, working through new choreography, but Jisung, Chan, and Changbin have been in the studio. They break for lunch, then head up to the dance space to get to work. It will be good, because Hyunjin, Felix, and Minho will have already mostly learned the choreography and can help work through with the rest of them.</p><p>Jisung hasn’t been feeling well for a couple of days and has a mask over most of his face. They’re all sure he’s coming down with something and the mask will only sort-of mitigate it, given the amount of drinks they all pass around. Jisung will just be patient zero as they pass around his cold for the next couple of weeks.</p><p>He barely touches lunch and he’s exhausted by the time they get up the practice space. He wishes he could go back to the studio, because then at least he’s sitting down and the ache in his back isn’t so bad as it’s going to be when he’s upright and dancing.</p><p>Sitting in a room with Chan and Changbin all morning, the change had been so subtle they hadn’t noticed. Hyunjin notices as soon as Jisung walks into the practice room.</p><p>“Jisung-ah?” He asks, and there’s a weird tone to his voice.</p><p>They should have known. Betas always have a clean scent - Minho’s is like the sky before snow, Seungmin’s like fresh earth in the sunshine. But Jisung’s was always neutral - nothing, and that should have been the tipoff that maybe he wasn’t presenting as a Beta, but simply not presenting at all.</p><p>The sweet smell of cream and sugar coffee fills the room. Omegas always have sweet scents, but it’s so far from Felix’s sweet peppermint scent that they know it’s not him. Alphas never smell sweet, so even though Hyunjin has always smelled like coffee, this sugar-sweet smell can’t be him. The scent is so heavy that it has to belong to an Omega going into heat.</p><p>Jisung says, “I don’t feel well,” and slumps sideways into Changbin. Changbin drops his drink to catch Jisung, and it shatters open on the floor.</p><p>All hell breaks loose.</p><p>“Alphas out,” Minho barks immediately, and Chan frowns at him, taken aback by having his authority as leader overruled, especially as an Alpha in a room with a presenting Omega going into heat. Changbin is standing there holding Jisung up, but his eyes are dark, pupils dilated, and Seungmin and Minho have to move fast to get Jisung away from him. “Out,” Minho says again.</p><p>He’s only a Beta, and he can’t command them the way Chan could - he wouldn’t be able to, since they’re Alphas, anyway - but Changbin turns to go, his heavy wood-smoke scent gone bitter with desire. He doesn’t want Jisung, not as a partner, not as a mate, not as - not like this. He knows he needs to go. Changbin goes.</p><p>Hyunjin hasn’t moved. His already-bitter scent has gone even sharper with desire, the prospect of a fertile Omega waiting right there in the room. There’s something else to it that none of them can place, something different than his scent, different from the way he reacts when Felix is going into heat.</p><p>“Hyung,” Minho says, and they’re dragging Jisung over to lie down, stuffing a hoodie underneath the back of his head and giving him a bottle of water. He’s pale and sweaty, and the sugar and cream scent is so thick that Chan can taste it on the back of his tongue, thick and cloying, almost choking him. “Chan-hyung, you have to get - “</p><p>“Yeah, yeah,” Chan says, like he suddenly snaps back into his body and remembers that he’s a functioning human who can move, who can do things. </p><p>Hyunjin is almost too startled to snarl at him when Chan grabs him to drag him out of the room. He still does, because he’s a baby Alpha who is still learning his place in their hierarchy - even though his place is definitely below Chan - and who is still testing the limits. But Hyunjin’s not stronger than Chan, and Chan manages to manhandle him out of the room, even though he growls and snarls and struggles.</p><p>He calms down in the hallway. Chan steers him down to where Changbin is sitting on the floor and parks him next to Changbin. Chan needs to talk to their management. They’re going to have to take Jisung wherever it is they take Felix when Felix is in heat to get him away from the Alphas.</p><p>Chan feels exhausted when he sits down on the floor across the hall from Hyunjin and Changbin. All the fight seems to have gone out of Hyunjin and he’s leaned over against Changbin, letting Changbin pet his hair. It’s been a while since he’s been like this with either of them. He’s been so combative with them that it’s almost weird to see him acting like himself - well, like he was before he presented. The old Hyunjin is still in there, underneath the baby Alpha.</p><p>“Never seen you get flustered by an Omega before,” Chan says, and flashes a smile at Changbin. He’s tired. It’s still early afternoon.</p><p>“I’ve never had one collapse in my arms before,” Changbin says. Until Felix had presented, they’d had limited interaction with Omegas, and even being around Felix has been limited because of Hyunjin.</p><p>“I feel like I can still taste him in my mouth,” Chan says, making a face. Had Felix ever smelled that strong? He should go and find water for them.</p><p>“I don’t understand how we didn’t know?” Changbin says. “I mean, is Seungmin also randomly going to go into heat or something? How could so many people be so wrong? Everyone was so sure that oh, Jisung’s a Beta, it’s totally fine, it’s good, it’s cool.”</p><p>“I don’t know,” Chan says. “I don’t know how they tell. I guarantee you that Seungmin gets to go and do whatever tests again though, after this. It must be some kind of false positive thing? That has to be it, right?”</p><p>“Either way, he’s definitely an Omega,” Changbin says. The only Omega he’s been around extensively really is Felix, and he’s never wanted to mate with Felix. Changbin’s not into him, for starters, and even if he were he wouldn’t want to put himself in the way of Chan finding he true love or whatever. Plus, there’s the whole Hyunjin being possessive problem that they’ve been dealing with for the past few months.</p><p>Several people come chattering through the hallway and disappear into the studio. The three Alphas sit in the hallway in silence, and eventually management brings Jisung out of the room and leads him away from them. Hyunjin starts to get up.</p><p>“No,” Changbin says, grabbing hold of Hyunjin’s wrist tightly to keep him from getting away.</p><p>“But I - “ Jisung’s sugar-sweet scent has filled the hall, even though he’s several doors down and they’re leading him out, overpowering as he drops into heat, the acrid note of desire sharp underneath.</p><p>“No,” Changbin repeats.</p><p>It’s not just Jisung’s desire, either. It’s Hyunjin’s too, his scent sharper in a way it never is when it’s Felix going into heat. Chan meets Changbin’s eyes and they’re both realizing the same thing.</p><p>Hyunjin’s not trying to get to Jisung to protect him the way he tries to protect Felix. Hyunjin <i>wants</i> Jisung, and not in the simple way an Alpha wants to mate an available Omega in heat. It’s there in the spike of desire Chan and Changbin can both smell when Jisung looks over his shoulder at them, acutely aware that there are three Alphas right there in the hallway who could fill him up, breed him and make the ache stop.</p><p>But there’s something about the way the scent of Hyunjin’s desire changes when his eyes meet Jisung’s. Something that makes it less acrid, even though the desire doesn’t lessen. Something that indicates that it’s not just the desire to mate.</p><p>Chan very clearly mouths, “fuck,” to Changbin.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Minho slips into Chan and Changbin’s room after most of the rest of the guys are asleep. It’s Felix’s room too, but he and Jeongin had long fallen asleep on the couch, wrapped in a blanket with Jeongin’s head tucked against Felix’s chest. Minho perches on Felix’s bed, exhausted from still practicing even after everything that went down at their practice space.</p><p>“What if we just… let it happen?” Changbin floats.</p><p>“No way,” Minho says. “That’s a disaster waiting to happen.”</p><p>“Why?” Changbin says. “If they both want each other like - you know, not just for Hannie’s heats or whatever, then. Why not?”</p><p>“You want Hyunjin and Jisung fucking in here?” Chan asks.</p><p>“No, but - “ Changbin rolls his eyes and sighs. “I don’t see why it’s a problem if they’re like. Compatible. You know?”</p><p>“We’re not going to be able to work if Hyunjin is acting psychotically possessive over both Felix and Jisung,” Chan says. “Especially since Jisung spends a lot of time with me and Binnie.”</p><p>“He did sort of - “ Changbin makes a motion with his hands. “He got close to me for the first time in months today. Like before. Before he presented, you know?”</p><p>“Yeah, hyung, were you not a possessive psycho when you first presented as an Alpha?” Minho asks, and he’s smirking.</p><p>“I - “ Chan makes a face at them. “I didn’t have an Omega around all the time to be possessive over.”</p><p>“Yet you let Hyunjin be possessive of the Omega you want to be possessive over all the time. That’s so weird,” Changbin says.</p><p>“You’re so disrespectful,” Chan starts, and Minho snorts.</p><p>“Just fucking court him,” Minho says. “You’re embarrassing yourself. And us. You’re embarrassing all of us by not being able to make a move on <i>Felix</i> of all people.”</p><p>“Why is that embarrassing?” Chan asks.</p><p>“Because he looks at you with hearts in his eyes,” Changbin says. “And you’re the only idiot that can’t see it.”</p><p>“Wow,” Chan says. “You come into my room, you speak to me like this - “</p><p>“It’s my room too,” Changbin says.</p><p> At the same time Minho says, “I can leave.”</p><p>“No, we have to figure out what to do about this,” Chan says. “Felix aside.”</p><p>“Felix aside,” Minho mimics.</p><p>“I can kick your ass,” Chan says.</p><p>“You can try,” Minho replies.</p><p>“What if it’s not that big a deal?” Changbin starts back in. “What if - I don’t know, they’re just supposed to bond and that’s fine and everything will be fine?”</p><p>“Yeah, what if,” Chan says. “And what if it’s a total fucking disaster. Like today was.”</p><p>“It wasn’t that bad,” Minho says. “It could’ve been a lot worse. Changbin could’ve put up a fight. Hyunjin could’ve put up a fight. Jisung - well, no, I don’t think Jisung had it in him at that point to put up a fight.”</p><p>“He kept asking for Hyunjin.” Seungmin is standing in the doorway in his pajamas, and when he speaks it startles all of them. “Jisung-ah, I mean.”</p><p>He comes over and climbs onto Felix’s bed next to Minho. “Did Felix do that?” Changbin asks.</p><p>“No,” Minho says. “Felix just wanted a dick. Jisung wanted, uh. A specific one.”</p><p>“Ew?” Chan says vaguely. Changbin throws a pillow at him, and there’s a brief interlude where the two of them throw pillows back and forth. Seungmin leans his head over against Minho’s shoulder sleepily.</p><p>“See?” Changbin says, once he and Chan have exchanged enough pillows that they each have their own back. “We should just let it happen.”</p><p>“And you should court Felix,” Minho says. Chan sees Seungmin roll his eyes, and he wonders if everyone in their group knows about his crush on Felix. If so: embarrassing.</p><p>“What I don’t get,” Chan says, “is how no one knew that Jisung was an Omega. Did anyone say anything? Don’t you guys get tested?”</p><p>“Yeah, but it’s not … thorough. Because Alpha and Omega presentation is so obvious, and because Beta scent is so distinctive, they just sort of - scent test us usually?” Minho explains.</p><p>“And it works… usually. But I guess you can get false positives?” Seungmin shrugs. “Anyway, I get to go get a full physical exam tomorrow thanks to Jisung.”</p><p>“What does that entail?” Changbin asks.</p><p>Seungmin stares him down. “You know what it entails.”</p><p>Chan says, “yikes.”</p><p>Minho yawns. “Start courting Felix,” he says, sliding to the edge of Felix’s bed. “And we’ll see what happens after Jisung comes back.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Three days without Jisung is weird. Seungmin is pissed off for half of it because he had to get an exam, and Hyunjin is sticking to the Alphas like glue instead of being weird about Felix like usual. The second night Jisung is gone, Hyunjin climbs into Changbin’s bed and curls up to sleep.</p><p>(“Is he broken?” Changbin asks Chan the next day when they’re sitting in the studio, doing absolutely nothing productive.</p><p>“Fuck if I know,” Chan says.)</p><p>In the meantime, Chan knows he has to make a move. It’s just, well - even though Minho and Changbin say that Felix would be into it, Chan still worries. Because Chan’s a worrier, and that’s just how he is as a person. He does the simplest thing he can think of: he asks Felix to watch a movie.</p><p>They order food - half of which they lose to other people in the dorm, fucking vultures - and settle on the couch. Chan hesitates to put his arm around Felix. Like, he doesn’t pull the yawn and stretch, but it’s a near thing. Felix cuddles against him, which is nice.</p><p>The movie’s almost over and he has to make the move. “Felix,” he says.</p><p>“Mm,” Felix says, half asleep, his head pillowed against Chan’s shoulder. Chan wants to bury his nose into Felix’s hair, to breathe in, to fill his lungs with the sweet peppermint way Felix always smells.</p><p>“Can I - “ He doesn’t want to just scent Felix, the way Hyunjin has done. He wants to do it right, to actually do it as courting and not as an Alpha coming on to an Omega in heat. Chan wants Felix to know that he wants him.</p><p>“Can you what?” Felix asks, and he tips his face up, and his freckles are so close to Chan’s face that Chan’s breath catches in his throat. Felix is so beautiful that it makes Chan’s chest ache.</p><p>“I want to - if you’re okay with it - I want to - Uh. Scent you. If you were interested,” Chan manages to get out. Why is he like this? Why does he have no game?</p><p>Felix smiles at him, and Chan hates himself because he’s honestly in love with Felix. He has been. That’s why Hyunjin being so possessive of Felix has bothered him so much. He just has to hope Felix knows what it means for Chan to ask this.</p><p>“Yeah,” Felix says, and his smile gets even wider. He shifts on the couch and tilts his head, giving Chan the entire expanse of his neck to press against, his white-blonde hair curling gently against his skin.</p><p>Chan leans in and presses his nose to Felix’s skin, nuzzling against the scent gland just below and behind his ear, and breathes in. Felix is so sweet that it makes Chan’s mouth water, and there’s some practical, vague part of his brain that tells him that’s <i>why</i> Omegas smell so sweet, to make them so appealing to Alphas. And Felix is so, so appealing to Chan.</p><p>Felix’s breath catches in his throat, and he shifts so that Chan can reach more of his skin, have better access. His hand comes up to wrap around the back of Chan’s head, to hold him close. Chan can’t help himself, and he opens his mouth, drawing his tongue across Felix’s skin.</p><p>Felix’s skin is just slightly salty under his tongue, but the scent of him is so thick that Chan can taste it, sweet and minty in his mouth like soft peppermint candies. Underneath Felix’s regular scent is the bitter note of desire, smoothed out by pure, bright, citrusy happiness. Felix is happy.</p><p>Happy having Chan scenting him.</p><p>“Can I scent you, too?” Felix asks, after a moment. Chan freezes, because he didn’t really expect Felix to ask. He wanted to court, but he didn’t expect Felix to be so readily open to it.</p><p>“Sure,” Chan says.</p><p>They shift, until Felix can press in against Chan’s neck, nuzzle his own nose against Chan. Chan feels Felix’s lips brush along his skin, feels Felix’s chest swell against his as he inhales. Chan is all spice, he knows - cinnamon and clove that would match so sweetly with Felix, if Felix would just give him the chance, instead of smelling like a weird peppermint coffee the way Felix always does when Hyunjin is around.</p><p>“When are you going to kiss me?” Felix finally asks him. He’s nearly in Chan’s lap. And who is Chan to say no to Felix when asked so sweetly?</p><p>Chan slips his fingers into Felix’s hair, tips his face up, and kisses him.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>When Jisung gets back to the dorm, he’s tired and embarrassed, trying to keep to himself in the room he shares with Jeongin, away from all of the group mates he fainted in front of as heat took him over. He had been comfortable being a Beta. And now…</p><p>He tosses and turns in bed, frustrated by his own inability to get back to “normal.” He buries his face in his pillow and inhales deeply. His pillow only smells like detergent and fabric softener and his own shampoo and it’s a blessing to not smell anyone else.</p><p>He’s never noticed it before. It’s like a switch has flipped inside of him and suddenly he’s hyper-aware of it constantly. He needs to ask Felix if he’s so aware of it all the time, and if it stops being so noticeable, if it’s just something that Jisung is distracted by it because it’s so new to him. He wants to ask Chan and Changbin if they notice - they’re not Omegas, but Alphas notice scent, too, and Jisung needs to know that it’s something that’s going to start blending into the background and stop being the only thing he can think about.</p><p>Out in the hall, Hyunjin is yelling something. The response is Changbin laughing, and Jisung pulls his pillow over his head. He doesn’t remember blacking out, but he remembers the heavy, dark wood smoke scent that wrapped around him and held him close and made him feel like yeah, this would all be okay even though everything had gone black. He knows that was Changbin, the way Changbin smells all the time. </p><p>He knows because he’s been sitting in the studio with Changbin, feeling like he’s drowning in it. And he’s not even attracted to Changbin, not really, aside from the vague concept that sure, Changbin is hot, and the urge inside him that screams “that’s an Alpha!” whenever Changbin comes near him. And if he turns his head, he’s breathing in all the warming spice that makes up Chan, and it’s the same damn thing: Chan’s hot, Chan’s an Alpha, and there’s the added bonus of the tiny bit of Felix’s sweet scent that stays clinging to Chan all the time now because Chan is taken.</p><p>It gives him a headache, so that by the time he gets out of the studio with them his head is screaming and he just wants to climb into bed and sleep for the rest of his life.</p><p>He pretends that he doesn’t remember the day that he went into heat. It’s out of self-preservation, mostly, because if he pretends he doesn’t remember it then he doesn’t have to address the things that he said about Hyunjin. Because he can’t address the things that he said about Hyunjin. Mostly because it’s not the way it is with Chan or Changbin - Jisung is, at the heart of it, actually attracted to Hyunjin. It was the one disappointment, knowing he was a Beta. It is the one silver lining to his presentation as an Omega.</p><p>Hyunjin is an Alpha. Jisung is an Omega. And Jisung <i>wants</i>.</p><p>It sucks. Before, it seemed like Hyunjin and Felix were going to be a thing, in spite of all of them (except Felix, apparently) knew that Chan had a thing for Felix. Now, that seems to be off the table. And still…</p><p>None of them really know if all of Hyunjin’s Alpha posturing has come to a stop because Chan has staked his claim on Felix. Things feel almost normal - the snarling has stopped, and if Hyunjin is bossier than before in dance practice, maybe that’s fair. Maybe he’s owed that.</p><p>Jisung just thinks that Hyunjin’s scent would smell really nice if it were all over him all the time.</p><p>He ignores the way he feels. He deals with the headache he gets from sitting in the studio with Chan and Changbin. He ignores the way he feels when Hyunjin is too close to him in the choreography and his mouth waters with the need to put it on Hyunjin, to taste, to <i>bite</i>.</p><p>Jisung can’t live like this.</p><p>At the very least, he knows what it feels like now when he starts going into heat, so when it happens again, he doesn’t just think he’s coming down with something. The body aches, the dizziness, he knows what it means now. And then - the need. The ache to be filled.</p><p>He makes a decision then. It may be the stupidest decision he’s made in the entire twenty years he’s been alive, but it’s the one he’s making. Being in heat was miserable. Being in heat in some sterile room, handling it alone - it sucked.</p><p>Felix isn’t handling his next one alone. They’ve already talked to management about Chan going with him. They’ve already talked about Felix’s birth control.</p><p>The idea of birth control makes Jisung want to collapse in hysterical laughter.</p><p>The idea of someone - not anyone in particular, certainly not <i>Hyunjin</i> - fucking him until his heat breaks makes him feel even more hysterical. But it’s what he wants. Not three days alone with a knotted dildo. Hands and teeth and - </p><p>“Hyunjin-ah, can I talk to you?”</p><p>Hyunjin is leaning against the mirrors in their practice space, dripping sweat, and when he looks up at Jisung he smiles, and Jisung dies inside. He feels dizzy again, overwhelmed with the scent of all of them crowded into the space, sweating and working and his nose hyper-sensitive because of his oncoming heat.</p><p>He can scent Hyunjin through all of it, the warm coffee smell that feels so calming to him, feels so much like what Jisung wants. The scent he wants to bury himself in and block out everything else.</p><p>“Sure,” Hyunjin says, draining a bottle of water, leaning his head back against the mirror. He’s going to have to wipe it down, because it’s steaming up against his back. That’s gross. Hyunjin is gross. Everything is gross and Jisung is trying not to think about it.</p><p>“I’m in pre-heat,” Jisung says, ripping the band-aid off.</p><p>“I know,” Hyunjin says. Jisung has already opened his mouth to say something else, but he pauses and frowns.</p><p>“You know?” he asks.</p><p>“I can smell it,” Hyunjin says. He ducks his head, and Jisung can see the blush on his cheeks. “I mean, I heard Minho and Seungmin talking about it. Then I knew why you smelled different. So - I mean. You smell different.”</p><p>Jisung is despairing. He looks skyward. “Not in a bad way!” Hyunjin says. “In an extremely good way! Sometimes it’s all I can do not to -”</p><p>Hyunjin breaks off, running his fingers through his hair.</p><p>“Not to what?” Jisung asks. He licks his lips.</p><p>“To put my hands on you. To put my <i>mouth</i> on you.”</p><p>“I want you for my heat,” Jisung blurts out.</p><p>Hyunjin stares up at him for a moment, and then smiles. It’s slow, almost predatory, and Jisung feels threatened. And not only does he feel threatened, but he feels a burst of need, of want inside him. He watches Hyunjin’s nostrils flare and knows that he knows.</p><p>Jisung goes for it. Now or never. He drops to his knees, sitting on Hyunjin’s lap, and leans forward and smashes their mouths together. When he grabs onto Hyunjin, his hands slip on Hyunjin’s sweaty skin as he reaches to grab a handful of Hyunjin’s hair. Hyunjin brings his hands up to rest on Jisung’s hips.</p><p>It feels good. It feels good to have hands on him, like a brand somehow warmer than the hot flash of his oncoming heat. Hyunjin’s hands slip underneath the oversized shirt Jisung is wearing for practice to touch his bare skin, and - </p><p>“Oh no you don’t.”</p><p>And that’s Minho, and a pair of hands on either side of Jisung’s upper arms and he’s being lifted up and he <i>whines</i>, which is better than the growl that trickles out of Hyunjin as he tries to follow as they lift Jisung off of him.</p><p>“Please,” Jisung says. He’s not in it yet, but he’s going to be. The ache has been building at the base of his spine and he can feel his temperature starting to climb.</p><p>“We’re gonna get a manager to take you - wherever they take you when this happens,” Seungmin says. “Like - now.”</p><p>“Hyunjin is going,” Jisung tells him.</p><p>“He’s definitely not,” Minho says.</p><p>“He is,” Jisung says, stubborn.</p><p>“I am,” Hyunjin says. There’s a growl in his voice that dares Seungmin or Minho to stop him. He could try and command them, and it might or might not work. “He asked me.”</p><p>Minho closes his eyes like he’s asking the lord for patience, and Seungmin makes a face. “Does management know?” Seungmin asks, when he’s done looking like someone’s put garbage under his nose.</p><p>“Does management know about Felix and Chan?” Jisung asks.</p><p>“I actually don’t know,” Seungmin says.</p><p>“Okay, I’m going to sort this out,” Minho says. He hesitates for a moment, then grabs Hyunjin by the wrist. “You’re coming with me. No way are you two staying in here together.”</p><p>Hyunjin snarls at him but he lets Minho lead him out of the room.</p><p>By the time management comes to get Jisung to take him away to isolation for his heat, he’s out of it. He and Seungmin are sitting on the floor, and Jisung is leaning against Seungmin, his eyes closed, letting Seungmin pet his hair. Everything about Seungmin feels so calm, and Jisung breathes in. Settled. Like if he just sat here with Seungmin and kept breathing, deep and steady, it would hold off his heat indefinitely.</p><p>The handlers get Jisung to his feet and Seungmin follows them to the door. It feels just like the first time, except there’s no heady scent of wood smoke filling his head, no coffee scent wrapping around him when he steps into the hall.</p><p>“Will Hyunjin be there?” Jisung asks as they’re loading him into a car.</p><p>No one answers him and the next time he opens his eyes they’re guiding him back out of the car and into a - well, he knows it’s not a hotel, but it’s something like that. For Omegas who need to be away from their regular living spaces during their heats. It’s where he went before. It’s where they take Felix, too.</p><p>They put him in a room and he stretches out across the bed. The sheets are cool, the only scent bleach and strange detergent. He thinks about Hyunjin’s hands sliding under his shirt, touching his bare skin, and he’s never wanted anyone so badly in his life.</p><p>It’s not just that he liked Hyunjin before either of them had presented, and it’s not their biological physical compatibility that purely drives it. Right now, everything Jisung is doing is driven by his biology, by his being an Omega, by the need to have an Alpha fill him up and breed him, and Hyunjin could do that. But more than that, Jisung likes him. Likes being around him, likes talking to him.</p><p>The thermostat in the room is set cool, but Jisung is sweating. He sits up and tugs his shirt off, throwing it on the floor, but it doesn’t help much. He sprawls on his back on the bed, rubbing his hand against his lower abdomen, digging his fingers into the ache. He wonders what it would be like, having Hyunjin there, if it were his hands on Jisung instead, pressing into Jisung’s skin.</p><p>The door opens and Jisung jerks upright. However, it’s only someone from management and a woman he doesn’t recognize. He slumps back down, because he just can’t bring himself to care, even though a stranger is seeing him without a shirt and he’s damp with sweat and starting to be damp with other things, too.</p><p>“We’re going to give you a shot,” the manager explains. The woman is some kind of doctor. She has a huge needle and Jisung can’t even look at it. He has to turn on his side and they tug his track pants down slightly before swabbing his hip and sticking him. Then they’re gone.</p><p>It aches and he stares at the ceiling. He knows there’s a big dildo with a knot waiting for him. They gave it to him his first time - congratulations on your presentation, little Omega, go fuck yourself - and someone must have brought it here once they decided he had to go to isolation. He’s not ready for it. He’s not ready for any of this.</p><p>He doesn’t want to be alone.</p><p>He stays there, unmoving, for as long as he can, until the feeling of the ache, the emptiness, is too unbearable for him to stay there without doing something about it. He pushes himself up and to the edge of the bed, pushing his track pants off. He’s soaked through his shorts and the track pants are damp, and he hates being alone for this so much when he <i>knows</i> he doesn’t have to be.</p><p>The dildo is flesh toned, big enough for the purpose, and has a knot on the end. Jisung learned pretty quickly that he could push it in and get himself off on the knot, and that would almost do the trick. Even so, he still feels empty after. It lessens the heat in his body, the ache inside him, but it doesn’t make him not feel empty.</p><p>(“I think that’s just what it’s like, when you’re not fucking an Alpha,” Felix had whispered to him one night, when it was just the two of them, revealing that it felt the same for him. “It can’t always feel like that, right? It’s awful.”)</p><p>The door opens once more and Jisung clutches the dildo to his chest, like he’s trying to hide it, his body flushing hot. Everyone knows Omegas do it, but that doesn’t mean that he wants anyone to see.</p><p>It’s Hyunjin who comes into the room. Jisung drops the stupid dildo, letting it roll across the floor. Jisung half feels like he’s hallucinating, that Hyunjin couldn’t possibly be there, they couldn’t possibly have sent Jisung an Alpha to get him through this.</p><p>Hyunjin smiles at him.</p><p>Jisung is naked and Hyunjin has on way too many clothes, and he needs Hyunjin to be naked and on top of him right now, and - has anyone ever smelled as good as Hyunjin right this second? His bitter coffee scent tempered with lust and sweat and this time Jisung can put his mouth on him for real.</p><p>They fumble backward toward the bed as Jisung struggles to get Hyunjin out of his clothes. The backs of his knees hit the mattress and he lets himself fall backward. Hyunjin follows, catching himself on his hands above Jisung, the beanie he was wearing in the studio gone and his hair falling loose to tickle Jisung’s face.</p><p>Jisung brings his hands up to fist in Hyunjin’s hair and instead of kissing him, he tilts his head to the side and guides Hyunjin’s head down, pressing his face in to scent Jisung. There’s no sweet courting here, no chance to do it. Just Jisung’s heat, Hyunjin’s hair tangled between his fingers, and Hyunjin’s teeth digging into his neck.</p><p>It’s a rush like nothing Jisung has ever felt, having Hyunjin bite him. The edges of the world go white and he pulls Hyunjin’s hair hard enough that Hyunjin makes a tiny noise of protest into his skin. There’s going to be a mark. There’s going to be a perfect ring of teeth on Jisung’s neck that is going to let everyone know that Hyunjin has claimed Jisung as his, his, <i>his</i>.</p><p>There’s no sugar-coating it: being an Omega is gross. In the throes of heat, Jisung is leaking slick as Hyunjin maneuvers him into a better position on the bed, soaking onto the sheets and smearing down the insides of his thighs. He’s not in a position for foreplay right now. He needs Hyunjin to fuck him.</p><p>“Please, can you just - “ Jisung says, and he can’t even be embarrassed about the way he spreads his legs, the way he exposes himself. He wouldn’t, if he weren’t in heat, but he’s being driven purely by instinct now.</p><p>Jisung doesn’t have to finish the sentence, because Hyunjin knows. He’s being driven by instinct just as much as Jisung is now, riding the high of Jisung’s heat, the heady taste of Jisung on his tongue from having marked him. He slides his hands up Jisung’s thighs, smearing slick further toward Jisung’s knees as he pushes Jisung’s legs up and then - </p><p>Hyunjin pushes into him with so little resistance, all the way to the hilt, and the sensation of finally, finally being filled draws a loud moan from Jisung. Hyunjin laughs, pressing it into Jisung’s neck as he shifts his hips. Jisung brings his hands up and tangles them in Hyunjin’s hair.</p><p>“Fuck me,” Jisung says. “Make it stop.”</p><p>It’s only Jisung’s second heat, but it’s by far the better of the two. The dildo has nothing on the weight of Hyunjin on top of him, Hyunjin’s mouth on his mouth and his neck. The only sound in the room becomes their breathing - Jisung’s exhales as Hyunjin fucks into him, Hyunjin’s heavy breathing as he moves his hips - and the wet slap of Hyunjin’s thighs against Jisung’s.</p><p>It turns out, using a knotted dildo is nothing compared to the actual feeling of a knot swelling inside him. Hyunjin makes a choked noise and says “<i>oh fuck</i>” and Jisung can feel it, swelling, forcing him open, trapping him open, locking them together.</p><p>And Jisung isn’t empty anymore. He’s a mess of slick and his own come, damp with his sweat and Hyunjin’s, and Hyunjin’s face is pressed into his neck as he’s breathing hard. Jisung lays still, petting his hand over Hyunjin’s hair. Hyunjin kisses along Jisung’s neck, dragging his tongue along the bite he’s left.</p><p>Jisung is under no illusions that one knot was enough to break his heat, and he becomes acutely aware of it when Hyunjin shifts to make himself more comfortable. His hips move, his knot moves, and Jisung moans. Hyunjin looks at him, a little startled.</p><p>“Sorry,” he says. “I’ve never - you know, this is my first time. With a knot. I can’t pull out or -”</p><p>“Do it again,” Jisung says. He watches Hyunjin’s eyes widen.</p><p>“Oh,” Hyunjin says.</p><p>There’s something more intimate about being fucked by a knot, when Hyunjin can’t pull out, when he has to stay close and just rocks his body against Jisung’s, pushing the knot deeper into him.</p><p>They fuck, and they rest, and they fuck, until they’re both exhausted, sprawled in the sheets and stuck together with their own fluids. Jisung doesn’t know how long it’s been. He knows that he feels normal again, the ache inside him finally gone. Hyunjin murmurs something next to him, his hair a tangled, sweaty mess.</p><p>“Hm?” Jisung says, before realizing that Hyunjin is asleep.</p><p>Jisung snuggles up to him, presses his nose against the scent gland just below Hyunjin’s ear, and breathes in. Hyunjin is his Alpha. That’s what he wants.</p><p>He falls back asleep.</p><p> </p><p>When Jisung wakes up again, Hyunjin is still asleep, but he’s rolled away from Jisung and curled around himself. Jisung can’t help but smile at that, and he leans over and presses a kiss to the back of Hyunjin’s neck before getting out of bed.</p><p>A quick check shows him there are clean clothes in his bag, just like the last time, and a second bag is there for Hyunjin. He tosses the dildo in and grabs the clean clothes and goes to shower.</p><p>Hyunjin joins him while he’s in the shower, and it’s the first time they’ve kissed without Jisung being in heat. Washing his hair has slicked Jisung’s hair back, but Hyunjin’s sticks to his face and Jisung looks up at him and - this is his Alpha. Hyunjin, who is beautiful and who is sometimes so stupid that he makes Jisung want to scream, who takes every inconvenience as a personal affront, who might be the most dramatic boy in the world.</p><p>They stand under the spray of the shower for a few minutes, letting it beat against their exhausted bodies, before Hyunjin finally says, “I really have to wash my hair,” and Jisung laughs.</p><p>“Let me finish cleaning up and I’ll get out of your way.” And that happens, after a few minutes of them staying there, their arms around each other, still kissing under the spray. Then Jisung rinses off and leaves, going to tug on his clothes and to contact their management and let them know he’d like to go home now, please.</p><p>Hyunjin is just coming out of the shower when one of their managers shows up, the doctor with him again. She’s got another needle, another injection, but this time, Jisung is aware enough to ask what it is.</p><p>“Birth control,” she says. “However much you may want to be bred when you’re in the throes of heat, we wanted to make sure that didn’t happen. And this is just to make sure that nothing takes. In case.”</p><p>Just in case. Jisung takes a deep breath, and this time they inject his hip on the other side. It feels like it hurts more this time, but Jisung knows that it’s his imagination, that it’s just that this time he’s not teeming with hormones and out of his mind with need. All of their stuff is packed, and Hyunjin slips his hand into Jisung’s as they walk out and climb into the van to head back to the dorm.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Felix and Chan are curled up on the couch when Jisung and Hyunjin get back to the dorm. Chan gets one glimpse of the angry red bite mark on Jisung’s neck and lets out a wolf whistle. Felix, who has been lying with his head resting on Chan’s chest, pushes himself up and grins at them sleepily.</p><p>“Was it nice?” he asks.</p><p>Jisung feels himself blushing all over his body, and he doesn’t answer, just scoots down the hallway to the sound of Felix giggling behind him.</p><p>“When are you going to do that to me?” he hears Felix ask, just as he reaches the room he shares with Jeongin. Hyunjin grabs his hand before he goes into his room, then kisses him. Jisung smiles, then kisses Hyunjin once more before they part.</p><p>Jeongin is sprawled on his bed, reading, when Jisung enters. He lowers his book and looks up at Jisung. Jisung thinks he can feel Jeongin looking at the bite mark on his neck. Self conscious, Jisung lifts his hand to cover it.</p><p>Jeongin shakes his head and turns back to his book.</p><p>“I hope to god I’m a Beta.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>on twitter @notedgoon</p></blockquote></div></div>
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